


This Is Halloween

by DashFlintceschi



Series: Prompt Table [16]
Category: As It Is (Band), Bring Me The Horizon, You Me At Six
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Haunted House, Horror, Josh and Dan fist bump a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 09:32:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8440429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DashFlintceschi/pseuds/DashFlintceschi
Summary: On October 1st, the best haunted house in the south-east begins its reign of terror.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Number 47 - Halloween. 
> 
> This is ever so slightly late, but fuck it, it's still Halloween somewhere.

** Saturday, October 1st, 2016 **

 

Josh is slightly nervous as he follows Matt, his new boss, through the carpark towards the surprisingly unassuming building. It’s supposedly the best haunted house in the south-east, but from the outside, it really doesn’t look like much. As they walk, Matt tells him that he’ll be meeting the other actors, who are just about to finish for the night. Josh laughs softly to himself, squinting as the slowly rising sun blinds him slightly.

 

He’s having slight doubts, until they’re walking towards a side door, and it opens before they get to it. On the other side are a zombie with his lower jaw and left eye missing, and a blood and viscera-soaked doctor. Josh’s eyes widen and he takes a step back, until the zombie turns to Matt with a grin; revealing his ‘missing jaw’ is actually makeup; and the ‘doctor’ pulls his surgical mask off, revealing an equally open, welcoming grin.

 

“How’d it go, then?” Matt asks them, and Zombie grins even more.

 

“Amazing. I swear, this fucker gets more inventive every year,” he laughs, aiming a thumb at Doctor, whose grin turns into a smug smirk.

 

“Seven kills.” Is all he says, and the three of them turn to Josh as he makes a choking noise.

 

“Oh, right. I should’ve explained that before, sorry,” Matt laughs slightly, reaching out to squeeze Josh’s arm comfortingly. “They call it a ‘kill’ if they make someone cry, demand to be escorted out, piss or shit themselves, puke, run through a wall… You get the idea,” he explains, and Zombie snorts and starts giggling.

 

“He scared someone out of their wig last year,” he adds, and Josh relaxes as he laughs with the three of them.

 

“Didn’t you keep that as a trophy?” Matt sniggers, and Doctor nods.

 

“Of course I did, it’s in a glass case in the staff room,” he confirms with a wide grin.

 

Matt introduces Josh to Doctor (Dan) and Zombie (Max), then the four of them go inside, so they can get Josh prepared to start in twelve hours time. The three of them discuss the roles they need actors for, and with Josh’s agreement, decide he’ll be ‘hockey-mask-and-chainsaw-guy’. They stop by the staffroom, so Dan can change into something that isn’t drenched in fake blood, and so Josh can meet the rest of the cast.

 

The first thing Max does is show Josh the glass case sitting on a shelf, and it does in fact hold some poor bugger’s wig.

 

“He honestly scared her out of her wig?” Josh asks with an incredulous laugh, turning to Max, who grins and nods as they head over to talk to the rest of the cast. The introductions are quickly derailed as Tom takes his makeup off and reveals a large, slightly puffy black eye. Noticing Josh’s horrified look, he just shrugs one shoulder.

 

“Some people’s fight or flight response leans more towards fight. Doesn’t happen often,” he explains casually, and none of the others seem bothered, so Josh forces himself to shrug it off, and hope it never happens to him.

 

Once Dan reappears in jeans and a hoodie, they leave Max in the staffroom to take his makeup off and change, and Matt and Dan take Josh to the section of the attraction that’ll be his. It’s right at the end, so he can chase people to the exit. Just inside the door to Josh’s section, Dan pulls open a trapdoor on the wall, and waves his hand at the enclosed space behind it.

 

“Think you can fit in here?” He asks, and Josh considers it for a moment, then shrugs.

 

“One way to find out,” he announces, then hoists himself up into it. There’s more than enough room for him to crouch comfortably, and once he turns around to face them and gets steady and comfortable, Dan holds out a chainsaw to him.

 

“It’s alright, it’s not real, they’re not even sharp,” Dan reassures him when he sees Josh’s hesitation, running his hand over the plastic teeth on the chain. Josh relaxes and nods, taking the chainsaw from him when he holds it out again. “Alright, we’re going to shut the hatch, see if you can open it, jump out and start the chainsaw in quick succession,” Dan instructs him, waiting for Josh to nod before he lifts the hatch up and clicks it into place. It takes a few tries before Josh realises the easiest way to open the door is to kick it, but once he figures that out, he only has to do it once and they’re both grinning at him.

 

“Damn, put him in costume and turn the lights off, and that’ll scare the shit out of anyone that comes through,” Matt praises, and Josh grins as Dan nods in agreement. After they show him the tiny red light that flashes when someone trips the sensor at the door and acts as his cue, Matt mentions that tonight is usually the night they open late, so the cast’s families can do a tour through, and insists that Josh invite his family.

 

At nine that night, Josh has just climbed into his hidey-hole and pulled the door closed behind himself, when Matt’s voice comes through his earpiece, telling him the family tour has just started, and to be ready. His legs are just starting to go numb when his cue light starts flashing. He counts to fifteen in his head, to give them time to get past the trapdoor, then kicks it open and jumps out. Matt had been right, the dim red lights coupled with his costume; a bloody boiler suit and white hockey mask; make for a terrifying sight, and there are several screams as he revs the chainsaw and chases them to the exit.

 

Normally, he’d stand in the doorway and wave the saw at them until they were led around the corner back to the carpark, but as it’s their families, and Josh knows the others are heading towards them to talk, he switches the saw off and removes his mask, grinning at them all as he wanders down the ramp and props the chainsaw against the wall.

 

As the rest of the cast come through the door and head towards their own families, Josh hears his sister’s voice rise up above everyone.

 

“That was Josh?! Fucking hell!” He laughs as he weaves through everyone to get to them, laughing more at the sight of Dan the homicidal doctor, Chris the rabid werewolf, and Oli the straight-jacket encased mental patient standing around, casually chatting with their parents. When he finally gets to his family, his mum goes to hug him, then hesitates.

 

“Is it…? Can I…?” She stumbles, motioning to the blood on his costume, and he laughs and nods.

 

“It’s dry, you’re fine,” he assures her, letting her pull him down into a hug.

 

“That was awesome, I’ll have to come back with my friends so I can laugh at them,” Elissa announces as she pulls him into a hug after their mum lets him go.

 

“I’ll have to tell the boys to up the ante, then. Can’t have you going unterrified, now, can we?” He grins, making her laugh loudly.

 

** Friday, 7th October **

 

The whole cast frowns worriedly as Josh limps into the staffroom, and it takes a minute for him to feel their stares and look up.

 

“You alright?” Jordan asks, and Josh shrugs.

 

“A girl freaked out and kicked me last night. Thought it was alright, but…” He trails off, pulling up the leg of his joggers to show them the massive bruise and slight swelling around his left knee.

 

“Yeah, there’s no way you’re working the last section tonight,” Matt insists, and Vegan pipes up before Josh can argue.

 

“I’ll swap with him. I was supposed to be working Dan’s section with him this week, so all Josh’ll need to do is lie on an operating table and scream,” he suggests, and Matt quickly agrees. Josh still kind of wants to argue, but he’d been dreading the thought of all that jumping and running he’d have to do, so he just nods and lets Patty lead him to one of the makeup stations.

 

A few hours later, they’ve just reset their section for the next tour when Ben’s voice comes through their earpieces.

 

“Next tour’s about to start. Josh’s sister and her friends are in this one, let’s give them something real special, shall we?” There’s a grin in his voice, and they both laugh softly. An idea comes to Josh, and after a quick conference, they’re ready. When they hear the tour move into the section before them, Dan completely covers Josh with a sheet and stands beside the table to wait.

 

When the group files in, Dan waves them over to him.

 

“Come, gather ‘round,” he encourages, and they reluctantly move to surround the table. Once they’ve all stopped moving, Dan leans up and pulls the sheet away. Several people make squeamish noises at the gore covering Josh’s body. He lies perfectly still, even holding his breath, until Dan sinks his hands into the prosthetic covering Josh’s torso, making it look like he’s been sliced open from sternum to pelvis. As soon as Dan’s fingers squelch into the fake intestines, Josh jerks his whole body as hard as he can, letting out a blood-curdling scream as he arches his back and starts writhing, reaching out as if to grab some of them. The whole tour start screaming and swearing as they rush for the door. The next section is an empty corridor that Dan often uses to his advantage, so he pulls his hands out of the prosthetic, each filled with viscera, and sprints after them, screaming and throwing body parts at them. When he comes back, they grin and fist bump before resetting for the next tour, agreeing that they should keep using Josh’s idea.

 

They get nine kills over the rest of the night, and Dan narrowly avoids being punched in the face at one point, and when they walk into the staffroom the next morning, Matt’s grinning at them. “I don’t know which one of you came up with it, but that was fucking awesome,” he tells them, and they fistbump each other as Patty comes to stand beside Matt, looking grudgingly impressed.

 

“You ruined a perfectly good prosthetic, but fuck, it was worth it,” he half scolds, making Josh laugh as Patty and Dan help him remove the prosthetic so he can get cleaned up and dressed. When he checks his phone a little while later, he finds a text from Elissa that’s mostly swearing and exclamation points, and he assumes it means she enjoyed it. 

 

Josh spends the whole week in Dan’s section, and by the time his knee is back in full working order on Thursday, they’re up to thirty-nine kills, and Matt almost doesn’t want to send Josh back to his own section. Vegan’s nowhere near as good at it as he is, though, so Matt relents, with the compromise that Josh and Dan work on something massive and epic for Halloween.

 

** Wednesday 19th October **

 

Josh should’ve known something would go wrong. His week had gone far too well. His kill count is high, he’s figured out the best way to crouch in his hiding place to stop his legs going numb, and he’s got his act totally perfect. Turned out that certain something it had lacked was the blood-curdling scream he’d gotten good at during his week with Dan.

 

His night continues in the same vein until just after three. His cue light flashes, he counts to fifteen, then jumps out, screaming as he revs the chainsaw. Instead of running, though, the group of six very large men rush at him, the first one to reach him punching him hard enough to knock him back against the wall. They all start punching and kicking him, and he just manages to scream for assistance before one of them grabs him by the throat and starts choking him. He hears running footsteps seconds later, and lets himself black out.

 

When he comes to, what feels like hours later, the first thing he sees is Lee and Max leaning over him, their concerned frowns clear even through their makeup. He tries to sit up, and they both immediately push him back down.

 

“Just stay there, mate. Wait until the paramedics have looked at you, just in case,” Lee urges, and Josh nods and relaxes as Max turns to look behind him.

 

“Dan? How’s that ambulance coming?” He calls out, and then Dan’s there, crouching over him with them.

 

“On its way, should only be a few more minutes,” he tells him, then smiles gently at Josh. “I know I said being punched was an initiation, but I think you took it a bit too far, love,” he jokes, and the three of them relax slightly when Josh laughs weakly.

 

The ambulance turns up a few minutes later, and after checking him over, they announce that he’ll be fine. His face and torso are badly bruised and his voice will be hoarse for a few days, but nothing serious. Matt insists on taking him home and convinces him to take the rest of the week off. Josh isn’t happy about it, but he knows Matt’s right, so he agrees.

 

** Monday 24th October **

 

When Josh wanders into the staffroom on Monday night, there’s a small cheer, and everyone’s hugging him and welcoming him back. When he sits down at the table with a mug of tea, he raises a confused eyebrow at Dan, and he laughs softly.

 

“They were worried. And it wasn’t the same without you. And most of them were worried you might quit, not that anyone would blame you if you did,” he explains, and Josh nods as Oli and Tom both turn to frown at Dan.

 

“Hang on, _they_ were worried, but you weren’t?” Tom asks, and Dan shrugs one shoulder.

 

“We’ve been planning our Halloween spectacular, so I spent most of the week with him, I knew he was fine,” he tells them, and they both nod in understanding as Matt comes over to sit with them.

 

“Hey, d’you want to work with Dan again this week? I know you probably don’t want to go back to your usual section just yet,” he offers, but Josh shakes his head as he downs the rest of his tea.

 

“Thanks, but I’m alright. It was a one-off, I know I don’t need to worry about it happening again,” he reassures him, and the dozen or so others who are pretending they’re not listening.

 

The rest of the week goes off without a hitch, and Josh and Dan spend most of it sorting out the finishing touches of their plan, with the help of Patty, Ali, and Nicholls. It takes a lot more preparation that they’d thought it would, but they planned well, and by the time Halloween comes, they’re ready.

 

** Monday 31st October **

 

Finally, it’s the night they’ve all been waiting for, their busiest night of the year. They’ve changed the whole setup, and Dan, Oli, and Chris are the only ones still playing the same roles they’ve had all month. They’re all excited and it feels like an eternity passes before Matt announces through their earpieces that the first tour is starting.

 

Josh and Dan hear the screams long before the tour makes it to their section, so when the door opens, they’re more than ready. Josh is standing up this time, chained to the wall, so as soon as the first person steps through the door, Dan grabs a handful of the intestines hanging out of the prosthetic on Josh’s torso and shoves it into Josh’s mouth. It took a while for them to find something that was both edible and realistic, especially with Josh being vegetarian, but they got there in the end. There are noises of disgust and fear as Josh chews on the intestines, and the tour start to make their way towards the door. They’d specifically set up the room so that when a tour passes through, they have to get within three feet of them both to get to the door. As soon as most of the tour are in that three foot gap, Josh throws himself forward as far as the chains around his wrists will allow, putting him less than a foot away from them as he lets out a loud, guttural scream. He mistimes it slightly, and half chewed intestines spray from his mouth as he screams, but if anything, it makes the reactions even better.

 

They’re all so busy trying to get away from Josh, that they don’t notice Dan slipping out of a door at the back of the room, rushing down a service corridor behind the set and into the empty corridor after their room, standing so he’s blocking the door to the next room. None of them notice him until they’re all in the corridor, and the door they’ve just come through slams closed on its own. They all start mumbling and shifting uncomfortably as he takes a few slow steps towards them.

 

“We had hoped you’d stay for dinner, such a shame,” he growls lowly, and the tour start to panic slightly, which serves as Josh’s cue.

 

“Doctor,” he moans, dragging it out as long as he can, and Dan pauses, smirking behind his surgical mask as some of the tour start to relax slightly. “Doctor, please,” Josh moans again, letting his voice slip into a high-pitched keen towards the end.

 

Dan casually strolls past the tour, heading towards the door they’d come through to ‘tend to his patient’, pulling more of the edible intestines from his pockets as he goes, handing them to some people, or draping them over people’s shoulders. Josh calls out for him again just as he slips back through the door, then lets a few seconds pass before he starts screaming desperately. Dan can’t help but laugh as he hears the tour bolt for the next room, but he manages to make it sound maniacal, and Josh reaches out as far as the chains will let him for a fist bump.

 

As the sun begins to rise on November 1st, Josh and Dan sit in the staff room, picking leftover intestines out of one of the prosthetics. The rest of the cast shuffle around them, taking off makeup and changing out of costumes, but the room is almost eerily quiet. There’s none of the usual jokes and banter. It’s finally starting to sink in that they’re done for the year, and it’s back to their day jobs now, and none of them want to go. 

 

Matt comes wandering in, looking around at them all with a small smile. He meanders over to lean against the table beside where Dan’s sitting, plucking some intestines out of the prosthetic and chewing on it thoughtfully.

 

“You guys all seem pretty down,” he comments casually, and there’s a mixture of shrugs and nods through the room.

 

“Don’t want to go back to work on Wednesday,” Max mumbles despondently, and Matt’s smile widens.

 

“So if I were to tell you I’ve just gotten a phone call from my boss, and they want us to trial a year-round run…?” He trails off, and they all turn to look at him with hopeful grins.

 

“You better not be fucking with us, Barnes,” Tom threatens, and Matt grins and shakes his head.

 

“Go home and get some sleep, guys, we’ve got a busy night ahead,” he tells them, and the room explodes with noise, everyone talking and laughing at once, and Josh and Dan turn to grin at each other.

 

“Looks like we’d better get to work. We’ve got a lot of out-doing ourselves to do,” Dan comments, and all Josh can do is laugh and nod as they fist bump, ideas already forming in his mind.


End file.
